We all loved our old Main St hardware store, mom and pop grocery store, etc... However, we are the ones that started shopping at the big box stores to save a buck. All they did was offer us the chance, we are the ones that snapped it up. Every market is customer driven, we vote with our pocketbooks. Admit it or deny it, we elected Walmart.

We have created the market that we have. We have created the throw away tractors, we have created the Chinese imports because as consumers we want to pay the least for the most. We want a 60" TV made in China for 500 dollars vs an American made TV for 600 dollars.

We have created Walmart, we have created the throw away generation.

toomanytoy84 you are correct, I can remember when the locale wallmart opened up where I grew up. we as a family were all super exited to have it, we never had much and things were cheap at wallmart. If I had known then what I known then what I know now I would never have set foot in any big box store, they target the smaller stores selling things for less than they pay till the smaller stores are gone then raise the price to where it is today. I look back at all the money I spent in those places and regret it, especially when looking for new things to buy today. where but the big box stores can you got o get a new printer or tv ? I haven't seen a mom and pop furniture or electronics store in years.

We as a society need to change our ways, raise our kids differently and stop throwing away everything when it breaks. when I bought my house I had to replace the toilet and the one I took out had a brass !!! yes brass flush valve assy in it, probably original to the house. I looked for another brass assy as that one was totally worn out and could never find one, now I have plastic that will need to be replaced in three years. God bless America, and I mean that in all senses of the term.

On the ability of Wal-Mart to be able to give their workers a raise, let's take the last 12 fiscal months (ending January 2015) into consideration.

If Wal-Mart were to increase each and every employee's (all 2.1 million of them) yearly wage by $20,000 per year, (from the teenager working 10 hours a week up to the CEO) that would only leave 87 billion dollars to split up for shareholders, reinvestment, product research and development, and future growth.